These are so good. Just the right balance of action, mystery and horror, with characters I love to root for.

Wonderful follow-up to SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD. McCammon has finally found his own literary voice and hopefully most of the reading public will follow him on this historical detective series (I'm fairly certain there will be a third book with his main character, if not more).

This is not exactly a sequel to Speaks the Nightbird (at least, not by my definition), but it does feature Matthew Corbett as the main character. I actually like this book better than Speaks the Nightbird – the pacing is more my speed, although a lot did happen, and I like that not everything is tied up in a little bow at the end. More books are coming! And I’m still imagining James McAvoy as Corbett – I really can’t go wrong with that.

I loved this book, loved how the pieces came together, love how New York city is described in detail. Narrator does a great job too. Now time to download book three!

It's been a couple of years since I read [b:Speaks the Nightbird|1525997|Speaks the Nightbird (Matthew Corbett, #1)|Robert R. McCammon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255700795s/1525997.jpg|16692325], one of my all-time favorites of any genre, and I confess to stalling quite a bit before tackling this one. After all, how could the second in a series ever live up to that previous masterpiece? So as you can probably tell from my rating, my fears were groundless, and I can safely shelve Robert McCammon on my exclusive best-of-all-time authors shelf.

This is technically the second in the Matthew Corbett series, although could easily be read as a standalone novel as only slight references to the first book are made, none of which relate to the plot of this book. Matthew Corbett has now come to the city of New York, still in its infancy in the year 1702. There are a multitude of plots and subplots here, from murders to political intrigue, from romantic entanglements to insane asylums, all masterfully woven together with an absorbing prose that made it difficult for me, as a reader, to tear myself away to do less important things...like eat and sleep and go to work. Despite being a relatively lengthy novel (656 oversized paperback pages) it was thoroughly engaging throughout; no boring middle section and no excessive minutia for padding. Somehow Mr. McCammon manages to combine the best of historical fiction, action/adventure, an intriguing mystery plot, and a bit of effective horror, while all the time telling a darn good story.

Matthew Corbett, as the protagonist of the novel, is a young chess-playing law clerk who attempts to solve several murders and eventually evolves into a more formal detective of sorts. One reason I like historical mysteries is the very nature of crime solving in the past, not having access to modern forensic techniques of D&A sampling and blood splatter analysis but rather being forced to make do with more visible clues and old fashioned brain power. There are numerous secondary characters as well but once again the author somehow makes it easy for the reader to keep track of them. That's not an easy feat I think; many times I've read mysteries only 1/5th as long where I can't keep track of who's who.

So overall, yeah, this is a keeper. This second book really begins the "series" part of the series; by the end, young Matthew is pretty well set-up for future cases/stores. In fact we briefly get a glimpse of the titular character from the next book in the series [b:Mister Slaughter|6505314|Mister Slaughter (Matthew Corbett, #3)|Robert R. McCammon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308972122s/6505314.jpg|16696203], and with a name like that it's gotta be good. I will definitely not be waiting 2 years to read that one! Highly recommended.